I can’t say it was a total accident… as, I had “hoped” it would turn out well… but…
Exactly 1 month ago, a former college roomate/fellow brewer came for a brew weekend. We were brewing up a RIS to eventually age in a bourbon barrel. We did a double mash - same 16lb grainbill in each of two mashes, @80% efficiency. Collected 4 gallons of first runnings off of each mash into a boil kettle for a 1.115 RIS. Collected 3 gallons of second runnings off of each mash in a bucket and made a second boil out of it. Added some Pilsner DME to get gravity up to about 1.055. Hopped to 45 IBU’s with Northern Brewer(60), Liberty (30) and Tettnang (0). Pitched German Lager X to the wort… basically figured we would get some kind of second beer out of our RIS that was sort of a Schwarzbier/baltic porter/black lager “thing”… I don’t know exactly what we made, but my oh my is it good. I would say it is sort of an overly roasty schwarzbier (kind of like Sprecher Black Bavarian maybe if you have had it).
Just tried some tonight. not really carbed up. only a 4 week old lager, but, damn… I love it when a plan comes together. Clean, roasty, drinkable - just a great “accidental brew.” Last time we brewed a Belgian Dark Strong, we made a weird second runnings beer and pitched saison yeast to it… it was out of this world too.
Nothing like making a wonderfully delicious beer that is virtually impossible to replicate because it is a “second runnings” beer :o
grain bill was:
50% Maris Otter
20% Munich
6% Wheat
6% Flaked Barley
5% Fawcett Chocolate
5% Midnight Wheat
3% Roast Barley
3% Crystal 60
1.5% Special B
Like I said, I am not sure what we made, but it is not going to last long. Here is to happy accidents ;D